Rafal’s learning to play Warhammer 40,000. While I’m no expert he decided a game against me might help with that! My most recent games have been quite rules light. Ciarán and I haven’t been layering in too many stratagems or other rules. Rafal, however, wanted the full experience, so I had to do a bit of study to recall how the game works. To add to the complexity we were using the Tempest of War rules, which give a random primary mission and random secondaries. This led to a pretty intense experience…
The game went well for my Blood Angels, with favourable card draws, generally good luck and a good combination of withering fire and brutal melee. By the end of Turn 2 the game was effectively over, with the Blood Angels having taken control of most of the battlefield. In small games like this, there is no redundancy in the fighting forces, so if one has a bad turn (or the other has a really good turn) the game tends to end quickly. It felt like we spent more time setting up the game than playing it! Hopefully Rafal learnt something. The main thing I learnt is how inelegant the Warhammer 40,000 rules are. It makes for a great spectacle, but there are too may layers to rules. This is by design, I’m sure, in order to make Warhammer 40,000 a hobby in its own right, rather than just a game within an overarching Wargaming hobby!
Until next time,
Owen